Educators have a responsibility to learn more about at-risk youth. This paper examines such youths' family systems and dynamics, their identifying characteristics, and explores possible interventions. If a family perceives many situations as crises, that family usually possesses inadequate coping skills. Children in such families develop their own dysfunctional coping strategies such as acting out, substance abuse, withdrawal, and over compensation. The roles that such children adopt include: the hero, the scapegoat, the lost child, and the mascot. A child may adopt several roles or switch roles when necessary since dysfunctional families revolve around the pathology which creates the disturbance. Dysfunctional families also tend to be shame-based and have implicit rules, such as don't talk, don't trust, and don't feel, which serve to isolate the child from others. Teachers may intervene in this dysfunction by developing an understanding of the child's adopted role. Identification methods include record keeping of problematic school behavior, faculty observations and referrals, friend and student referrals, parents, and the legal system. Once the at-risk student is identified, the teacher and counselor can begin to develop specific intervention strategies. (An appendix characterizes family roles and lists role-specific interventions for teachers.) (Contains 11 references.) (RJM)